“No.” Angel’s voice was hard and unyielding.

I crossed my arms to glare at him. “I don’t need your permission.”

“Look what happened the last time. He kidnapped you from a graveyard Kira.” He shook his head.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Yes, it was over the top but he at least deserves to hear about my wedding from me and not from someone else.”

“He probably already knows,” Angel muttered under his breath.

“If he had he would have called me already,” I argued. I knew my brother.

When Angel remained tightlipped I sighed. “Don’t make this hard. I’ve already called him up and setup a meeting.”

“I don’t like this one bit Kira.” His features tense.

I touched his face and his features eased. “I won’t be long and I’ll take Jack.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better.” He added dryly.

“Come on,” I urged him. “Don’t ruin my good mood.”

He studied me and then half smiled. “I’ll just have to work on putting a smile back on your face tonight.”

Memories of the night before heated my cheeks.

“I’ll see you later,” I said, putting a brief kiss to his mouth. But before I could move away he pulled me closer putting his arms around me and kissing me so thoroughly, I struggled to stand when he released me.

“If Kaiden tries anything like he did the last time tell him I will make him regret it.” The threat was serious.

I put a hand to his chest. “Don’t worry. He won’t. He only did that to talk me out of a marriage I’m already in.”

We had so easily slipped into some sort of martial role playing. It had only been a day and I was still trying to pull myself back from feeling so much for him, it was a bit overwhelming. And having some distance from him would do me some good and give me space to breathe and work my way through my sudden realization that I loved a man who couldn’t love me back.

I gave Jack the address to Kaiden’s apartment. An apartment I had never been to.

I was nervous to how my brother would react to my news. My gaze moved to the rings in my fingers. The sight fluttered my heart and I took a deep breath. I held the breath for a few seconds before expelling it.

I had it bad for Angel and I didn’t feel like I was doing a great job at handling it.

When we pulled up outside the apartment block. Jack followed me up the apartment.

I knocked and moments later my brother answered the door. He wasn’t in his usual suit, instead he was casually dressed in jeans and a shirt. It made him look younger and less formidable. I didn’t miss the look shared between my brother and my bodyguard. There was still tension stemming from the last time they had seen each other when Kaiden had kidnapped me.

Jack remained outside as my brother ushered me in.

“I’m surprised you’re still talking to me,” he said as I turned to face him once we got into his living room.

His apartment was super clean and organized.

“You’re lucky I’m so forgiving,” I countered.

“I’m glad you’re here. I have something to show you.”

My curiosity was peaked.

“This is going to be a bit of a surprise and I need you to keep your cool.”

It was a strange request but I nodded as I followed him down the hall and he stopped outside a room.

Why was he worried if I could keep my cool? It was the strangest request.

When he looked to be for confirmation I nodded my head. “I’ll keep my cool.”

He opened the door. Our father sat on the bed as we both entered the room.

“Dad?” I gasped, trying to figure how the father we hadn’t been able to find anywhere was in Kaiden’s spare room.

“Kira,” my father greeted without making a move to embrace me.

I was stunned. “You found him?”

“Something like that,” my brother answered.

“How?” I was struggling to take it all in. The betrayal of what he had done and the position he had put me brought only anger.

“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is he is here now.”

My gaze went from my brother to my father.

He looked well and not at all like a man who had been on the run from some very bad men.

“Why?” I found myself asking.

“I needed the money Kira. And the opportunity arose and I took it.” He shrugged, like it wasn’t a big deal and it hadn’t totally upturned all of our lives, especially mine.

“Really dad? Of all the things you have done this has to be the most self centered.” I was so angry I wanted to yell at him and it took all my self control not to yell and bring my bodyguard running.

“You never understood anything,” he moaned and I had the urge to shake some sense into him.

I curled my hands into fists.

Kaiden reached for my hand, the one with the wedding ring. “Tell me you didn’t.”

When I didn’t immediately answer, his grip on my hand tightened.

“I think the more important question is why my father would offer me up to the Vincents to square off his debt?” I pulled my hand free from my brother to glare at my father. I crossed my arms to keep myself from doing anything physical to him.

He had turned my entire life upside down for the last couple of years and there he didn’t seem to have an ounce of regret or sorrow over it.

“I didn’t. I tried to pay back the money but they didn’t want it. All they wanted was you.”

That made the hairs on my neck stand up. Why me? It made no sense whatsoever.

“When did it happen?” My brother’s question brought my attention back to him.

“When did what happen?” I asked.

“The wedding.”

It had been the reason for my visit. My brother wasn’t happy. His jaw was tense. I hadn’t expected him to be accepting of it.

“Yesterday.”

His jaw tightened.

“You got married?” My father asked, sounding puzzled.

“Yes,” I ground out.

Did he have no idea how much his actions had affected my life? I wouldn’t forced me into a marriage where my husband was unable to love me the way I loved him.

“Angel married me to protect me,” I said, watching for his reaction.

“You guys have always been close,” my father said and I bristled.

“He always stepped in when you weren’t there,” I snapped. He had been the worst kind of father. Sometimes I wondered if I would have been better off without him.

All he seemed to bring was pain and chaos. Nothing good come from his actions. Like the two years I had been in hiding and the having to marry Angel.

I wasn’t naive to believe that if it hadn’t been the threat from the Vincents we wouldn’t be married now.

Maybe I would have been better off than being in love with someone I knew couldn’t love me back. It was torture being so close as two people could be and I couldn’t share how I felt about him. It felt wrong and something I had to fight all the time. I couldn’t afford to slip up.

“I don’t understand why the Vincents would want me?” I said, trying to figure out why I was even on their radar. “It makes no sense.”

“Angel, could be the reason,” Kaiden suggested.

I frowned. “I don’t get it. Why would they want me because of Angel?”

“You and Angel have always been close. They can get to him through you. When he found out they wanted you, he tried everything he could to repay the debt so they would leave you alone.” My brother shrugged. “It makes sense.”

To me it didn’t. I had been in Angel’s life for a long time but we had never been close. At times we could barely stand each other. It had just been those times, when I needed someone he had been the one to step up. Every other time we had barely tolerated each other. Why would anyone believe they could use me to get to Angel?

The ring on my finger reminded me of what I was to him now. But he had done that to protect me. Would this have the opposite affect he had intended? Would it put me more into harms way?

“Another good reason why you shouldn’t have married him.” Kaiden wasn’t going to let it go.

“Just stop it,” I snapped, feeling my stress level rise. “I have enough to deal with, I don’t need your snide comments Kaiden.”

I let out an emotional breath.

“You can say what you like. Angel has always looked after you.” My father surprised me by saying. “You did good marrying Angel. He is powerful and they wouldn’t dare touch you now.”

My brother shook his head at my father. “I’m more worried about why he did it. Marrying someone is a big thing. I don’t believe for a second he did it for anyone else other than himself. And it’s only a matter of time before it comes to light. Are you ready for what you might discover?”

I couldn’t answer because for a moment I feared my brother could be right.

“Please keep him out of trouble,” I said to Kaiden as he walked me to the front door.

I didn’t need him to do any more damage than he had already done. Who knows if I would even get out of the mess he had already created. I felt like I was getting a head ache and I rubbed the back of my neck.

“I will. Promise me you will be careful with Angel,” Kaiden warned. “I know you trust him and don’t think he is capable of being deceitful but I know him better than most people. And I trust my gut. He is up to something.”

I turned to face my brother. “Angel wouldn’t do something underhanded like that. I don’t know why you think he would use me.”

It was like we were talking about two different people.

“You think you know everything about Angel but you don’t.”

Why was he being so cagey?

“Fine. Tell me something I don’t know about him.”

Come on. I had known him practically my whole life, there wasn’t anything my brother could tell me that I didn’t already know about him.

My brother studied me for a few moments.

“He had a brother.”

I frowned. There was no way that could be true. A brother.

“A brother?” I echoed, in disbelief.

Kaiden nodded. “Yeah.”

A brother.

“That’s not possible.” I couldn’t believe it.

How on Earth did I not know this?

“Ask him about it.”

I was married to him for goodness sake, I had grown up with him. How did I not know he had a brother?

“I will.” My confidence in Angel was shaken, allowing the doubts my brother was raising to take hold with more substance that before.

My brother touched my arm and my eyes lifted to meet his. “If you need anything you can call me anytime, night or day. I don’t want you to feel like you’re in this alone because you aren’t.”

I nodded. “Thanks,” I murmured.

When I left the apartment with Jack beside me, my mind was still reeling. How could I not know that Angel had a sibling? It was mind blowing that I didn’t not know that very important detail and it made question how well I knew Angel at all. How much older had his brother been?

I searched through all the memories I had of Angel trying to see some hint of what my brother had revealed and I came up with nothing to substantiate his information.

When I got back to the house I had made my mind up to confront my new husband but I couldn’t find him anywhere. I was going to give him the chance to tell me before I did anything like search it up on the internet.

My mind sank down into the doubt that I had managed to keep from taking over up to this point. I had brushed my brother’s concerns off as nothing but what if they weren’t.

I didn’t like how the uncertainty made me feel. It was made worse by the fact that I was in love with him. Now there was a chance I was hopelessly in love with someone who was using me and that made me feel worse than the thought of him not being able to love him.

All the uncertainty made me go up to the room where Angel had kept my boxes. Maybe this was as good as any time to go through them. I wasn’t just after the memories they held I hoped I would find something in the stuff that my mother had kept that might shed some more light on the death of Angel’s brother.

Just that morning I had felt secure and confident in my choice and just hours later I wasn’t. What if my brother was right, what if Angel had only used me for a reason I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure my fragile heart could take that type of betrayal after everything I had been through.

I sat down on the bedroom floor and began to search through the boxes. A lot of them contained stuff from my bedroom but I didn’t find the one I was looking until I found the box with all of my mother’s things I had kept.

There were journals, jewelry, and some of her clothes I hadn’t been able to let go of. I breathed the familiar sent of her from her clothes and allowed myself to drift off to a time where I could hear her voice, see her smile and bask in her love.

But as the memory faded, the warmth turned and cold. I felt alone as I picked up her journals. I had never got to a stage where I had been able to touch any of her things without feeling the pain of her passing. I had never read a word from her journals and I wasn’t even sure if I was in place to do it now.

Could I read through all her hopes and dreams knowing the final tragic outcome of her life? My heart fell. I let out a long breath, but new deep inside I was no where near ready. I would have to get the information I wanted either from my husband, or if he wouldn’t tell me I would have to find other avenues to appease my curiosity.

Cross legged on the floor with my mother’s journals piled up around me I tried to think of a good enough reason for why Angel had never told me about this brother and the only reason I could come up with was that it hurt too much to talk about him.

I bet it hurt him as much as it hurt to talk about my mother. I rarely talked about her, even if she wasn’t far from my daily thoughts.

“You’re busy,” Angel’s voice pulled me out of my head where I had been consumed by thoughts of my mother and her passing.

“I’m not sure I’ve been that productive,” I said, getting to my feet. All I had really done was unpack some things.

He remained in the doorway. “You taking a trip down memory lane?” His eyes on the books piled on the floor.

“I have to unpack them sometime,” I sighed, feeling overwhelmed already.

“There’s no rush,” he said, watching me. He walked over to me to kiss me briefly on the mouth and put an arm around me to pull me close.

I allowed myself to sink into his strength for a moment before I remembered what my brother had revealed.

I moved to face him. Here was my chance to find out more about the brother I never knew had existed. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”

His features stilled and any warmth vanished. I watched as his features shuttered leaving me unable to read emotion from his face.

“Who told you?” His tone terse.

I shrugged. “What does it matter?”

My brother was already on his bad side there was no reason to make it worse.

His jaw tensed.

“Why don’t you ever talk about him?” In fact no one had ever mentioned him to me before and I found that very strange.

“Do you like to talk about your mother?” he asked.

I shrugged. “At least people know I had one.”

“There is nothing to talk about.” He was ending the conversation without telling me anything.

It increased the fear that somehow my brother was right and Angel had other reasons for marrying me.

“I want to know about him.” I tried to reach for his hand but he stepped back.

“I don’t talk about him.” His words had a finality to them that I wasn’t prepared to accept.

Perhaps if I knew more about it, it would make me understand him better. But Angel wasn’t the type of person you could push to share things he didn’t want to share.

“Is that why you were so good with me when my mom died? Was it because you understood what it felt like to lose someone you were close to?” I was trying to reach him but his stone like features made it difficult to read if it was working or I was just wasting my time.

“There is nothing to talk about Kira. He died and that’s all there is to it.”

He turned and left me watching him walk away. I didn’t even know his name, or how old he was when he passed or what happened to him.

I had tried to get the information I wanted from him but he didn’t want to talk about so that left me with no alternative but to see out what I wanted to know from other sources.

The only other person who might be able to reveal something would be Maria. She had worked for the family for so long, if there was anyone who knew anything she would be the person to ask.

Then I felt bad for snooping around to find out things Angel didn’t want to tell me. But I argued that it would help me understand him better and ultimately bring us closer together.

There were more advantages to knowing the truth of what happened to Angel’s brother than disadvantages.